JB Blues blog: Johnnie Bassett recording honored

The late Johnnie Bassett, known as “The Gentleman of the Blues,” won a Detroit Music Award for his CD “I Can Make That Happen” (Sly Dog) on Friday. Bassett’s last recording was named Outstanding National Small / Independent Label Distribution Album.

Bassett, who passed away from complications of liver cancer on Aug. 4, 2012 at the age of 76, was a silky smooth singer-guitarist, who got his start in the mid-1950s with Joe Weaver and the Blue Notes (the studio band for Fortune Records), backing up musicians such as John Lee Hooker, Big Joe Turner, and Ruth Brown.

After a stint in the U.S. Army, Bassett lived for a time in Seattle, where he hosted a Sunday night jam session often attended by a young guitarist named Jimmy James, who later became well-known as Jimi Hendrix.